1 3:z Of EleClion. --~--~--~~~~~--~- -----~------------~along after the Fall ARs of Jt~dlcaturr, on Gods parr, and his DccreeB o oK Ill. ing of them, or difpoting of them Jorefeen, are to be put unto the Ac· ~count. And as God Decrees not to Damn, but only for hn, fo he Decrees not to withdraw the inward means of Salvation but tor fin fore– feen, Hence therefore for God to chufe to the means dfedual to bring to Salvati· on his Eled coniidered as fain, there is ajtis Abfo!tttlo71id in it, hightened to the highetl. But in Reprobatwn, not to give them to Man lido; there was what iliould move him to it, and a Jullice in it. Now if this fecood Ad of Eledion unto the means, be thus an Ad, ]11ru ab{o!ut1 in the bighell kind, which the other is not, as by the formerCompa· rntive appears; then how may and fhould we afreili magnifie the Grace and Love ofGod iliewen therein? IfGod had in Decreeing to give thofe effedual means, gone by aj11s ordi11atum, or a Rule, or any thing revived in us, that iliould have deferved the giving thofe means, as our Rumling, or our Willi11g, as Motives to bellow them, then the Dominion ofgiving them, had gone by 'ajtH ordmatum : And then it had gone by Works, and had not been ofhim that ca/Jeth; Namely, out ofhis pure Dominion, as that oppotition declares in Rom. 9· And then his Grace, and Love, would have been le!fened in this Ad. But being otherwife, now the purity of the Glory of Grace continues {\ill as high, and iliines as clear and glenous, as in that other Ad of Eledion to the md, yea, higher, for the R.eafons given aforefaid. How then iliould this Love and Grace be magnified by us in this fecond Ad ofElection, by thefe confiderations. • 1. For where more of Dominion is, and appears in an Ad, that is, an All: of Grace, there is the more ofGrace iliewn therein; For then it is Grace Abfo– lutely and every way Grace, when there is nothing obliging or moving thereunto in the leall; and Grace is then Grace when it is every way Grace, and kept free of all Obligations or encouragements that are from u•. It is not only the greatnefs of the gift, that fets out the Grace,but thejreeuefs and abjoh•tmefs of the giving and bellowing ofit; now where there is the more Dominion, there is the more liberty in the giving,and the more freenefs, and fo the more Grace in it. Kings are faid in their gifts to be gracious, becaufe they have fo high and Sovcraign Dominion, and Jree from Obligations to their Subjeds. The glory of Grace lies in Free– dom, when it is mero mottt, as the !lile of Kings in giving gifts doth run. 2. In that former Ad ofEiedion to the end, towards us as not fain, but Creabi!es,or as con!idered ill creating appears,(as it was indeed)an abfoluteD.c– rpinion, becaufe in Bellowing it, God bellowed purely what w.u hu own. And wherein there is maxima tibertaJ, as out of Ban11ies was iliewn. And belides the greatnefs of the Dominion, its being a Dellination, fo great a Glory doth inhance it. For think with your felves, a thingout of nothing, 'Decreed to be created, mzd then crtated, aud whitfi it isyrt 11othi11g, could no way be con– iidered to have any thing in it to move or oblige, but yet fo as llill there was nothing contrary, which could be viewed therein. If you wiU fay it was fim. ply in the Power of God and the Soveraignry ofGod to Ordain this, but yet there was no bar to hinder the procedure of it, and yet put in aCaveat, or Plea againf't it in the leall, but where fin is, (as in Man contidered as fain) there is a Law utterly to the contrary as was faid, and therefore 'tis a higher Dominion to remove thofe crofs bars, to Anfwer thofe Pleas, and over-rule and give means to lain Man to Salvation anew, than to Ordain to the End at lirll · and therefore it is the Scripture fets forth by this the Love ofGod to m,that 'while we wereji11ners Chrif/ died fortiS. Andfo God !ovtd the World, that he gave hid ouh btgottm So11, and the like; which were but means t" fave Man fain. l· There was in that fain Condition when it w.as in view, Caufa reproba– bi!itatu, a Caufe to have been Reprobated, not fo m the former Ad : A re– probability there was to the denying of all means for the future, and fo of Salvation it felf. For withoutthefe meatis, none that were fain could be faved, . and
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